Its official. I hate IDE

[Switch07]

I built my own computer (first time building one from scratch) a few weeks ago. I had my applied tech teacher watching over my shoulder the whole time.

I had XP on it running smooth for a week and a half. Everything was working fine, untill I tried to install Ubuntu and some other stuff. VERY long story short. I went through **** and back getting my system to work again. 90% of my problems were due to a faulty IDE cable going to my HDD.

Now I have a new IDE problem. After 3 days straight of work on this machine, I figured out the first IDE problem, everything booted up, the XP install disk loaded with no errors this time. Everything worked.

Ok... I turned off my box, and plugged the second IDE connector into my second 200gig hdd (so now I had both of my 200 gig hdds connected. When I started my computer, the CD rom drive didn't start up, as if it wasn't getting power at all. Then i checked my BIOS and NONE of my drives were showing up. Niether of the hard drives, or the CD rom drive.



I hadn't changed any of the setup at all, all I did was plug the other 200 gig hdd in (mind you, this is the HDD that I went through **** and back with, with the faulty IDE cable).

So next I tried messing around with some stuff, and quickly figured out that if I unplugged the CDrom IDE cable, and left the molex plug in the CD rom, that when i started the computer, the CD rom drive would start right up as if nothing had happend. But as soon as I but the IDE cable back into it and started up the computer again, the CD rom drive wouldn't turn on once again. I'm assuming its doing the same thing for my HDDs, which is why nothing is showing up in my BIOS.

I've tried 3 different CD rom drives, and they all do the same thing. IDE cable plugged in = no workey. IDE cable unplugged = start up perfectly normal.

I don't get how plugging my second HDD in:
1. even effects the CDrom drive on a completely sepereate ribon.
2. makes it so that none of my disk drives show up in my BIOS anymore.

before you say anything. I have tried going back to the setup that worked perfectly before I plugged the second HDD in. And now its still doing the same thing. In fact, even if I don't have ANY hdds plugged in (both the mobo end and the hdd end of the cable are completely unplugged), the stupid CD rom IDE cable still screws with the CD drive for some reason. I also have tried all of the different combinations of hdds being plugged in and CD rom drive plugged in.

I just want my computer back!!!

 

[Apokalipse]

I know this is probabbly stupid, but did you check the master/slave jumpers?

 

[fury36]

My stupid IDE Cable broke after jst unplugging it a couple of times, i hate em to.

 

[jeremy]

my ide cables never broke , dont use excessive force and connect em right dont force em in when they aint suppost to get in

anyway as alredy mentioned , its could be a jumper issue, at this thread i explained about jumpers have a look http://www.techist.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=96217
its on optical drives jumpers and not about hds but still it explains how it looks like/their role/location/what tools you need to work with em. and hdds have master/slave settings printed on em or on the sticker.. , on the other hand its also possible you didnt connect the ide cable right means you connected it on the wrong side to the drive or the motherboard or both

 

[Jefe]

if you use the higher end IDE cables, a whopping $5 each instead of $2 lol... they are FAR more durable... I would go that route regardless, then I would verify the jumpers are set up right, even if they are on cable select, remember which input goes where...

 

[Juice Daddy]

make sure the motherboard is clearing the case...

(someone I know had a similar problem... come to find out the motherboard was getting a short from the case... added some space and fixed it...

 

[vagnozzi]

I'm willing to bet your blank drive is set to master as well. Go into BIOS and set the first hard drive (with XP) to Primary Master and your empty drive to Secondary Master. After this, your CDROM should be set to secondary master. Play around until you get it right, no harm in trying.

 

[jeremy]

vagnozzi, the drive's jumper determines wether its master/slave not the bios

 

[Switch07]

THANK YOU SO MUCH

It turned out to be the jumpers for the problem for the HDDs.

I don't know if it affected the CD rom drive or not. But I unplugged the Optical IDE cable and plugged it back in and it worked (even though I did it a hundred times last night)

but thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you !!

 

[Jefe]

jeremy is right, the cable would be what determines the info in the bios, the bios doesn't really have a say except how to read the drive itself... if that were an issue then I would consult the bios